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Some Ships Get Coast Guard Tip Before Searches

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Under intense pressure from shipping companies concerned about costly delays, the Coast Guard is tipping off some large commercial ships about security searches that had been a surprise, according to high-ranking Coast Guard officials.

The searches began after the Sept. 11 attacks as part of a major revamping of the Coast Guard and its new antiterrorism mission. But shipping companies say the surprise boardings at sea cause unnecessary delays, costing up to $40,000 an hour.

"We're trying to facilitate commerce and keep the port secure — and sometimes the two conflict," said Capt. Paul E. Wiedenhoeft, who is in charge of the port complex here at Los Angeles and Long Beach. "When possible, we're trying to give shippers as much notice as we can."

The practice has caused considerable confusion and debate within the Coast Guard. Commanders in some ports acknowledged in interviews that they provided up to 24-hour notice. Others said the practice undermined the inspections.

Even within the command at some ports, there was disagreement about the best approach. The port captain in San Francisco, Capt. William J. Uberti, said shippers and carriers were "not supposed to have a clue" about possible random boardings. Yet his security chief said the command gave companies notice.

A typical search involves checking the crew and cargo manifests against those filed with the ports. Sea marshals check identification cards against the faces of crew members. They sometimes arrive with bomb-sniffing dogs and inspect with hand-held radiation detectors. Depending on the circumstances, a review can last a half-hour or a half day, officials said.

Capt. Frank Sturm, a top policy official at headquarters in Washington, said the national policy on the boardings was fluid, depending on the presence of reasonable suspicions, based on what a ship reported it was carrying and the makeup of its crew. Captain Sturm said he could not provide details of how many ships were given notice, in which ports or under what circumstances.

"In some cases," he said, "it would not surprise me to tell a captain of a ship in advance."

Another Coast Guard official in Washington, Cmdr. Paul D. Thorne, said the practice had not compromised security."Threats are being adeptly managed by local captains of the port," Commander Thorne said.

But critics worry that the practice may undermine an important component of the layered security effort to keep terrorists out of the nation's longest border, its more than 96,000 miles of coastline.

"The purpose of the inspections is for the Coast Guard to send a message to all these ships that they might be boarded at any time, basically to make sure there's no mischief on board," said Stephen E. Flynn, a former Coast Guard commander who is now a fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations. "If you say, 'Heads up, when you get close to port in two days we're going to board you,' that sort of defeats the purpose of the boarding."

A spokesman for the Coast Guard in New York agreed, saying nearly 1,000 boats a year were boarded for security reasons in the ports of New York and New Jersey and that all the inspections were a surprise.

"If they're from a foreign port and trying to get into the United States, they should know they might get boarded — without warning," said the spokesman, Mike Lutz.

Since the middle of last year, the Coast Guard nationally has boarded more than 16,000 vessels and found numerous violations, most related to safety or crew status. In 144 cases, the vessels were temporarily held back from anchoring in American ports, the Coast Guard said, without giving more details.

Shippers and carriers consider the inspections a nuisance because they delay the delivery of goods, and suggest that the notice allows them to make more efficient use of the inspection time. Critics, however, suggest that the notice also gives a heads-up to potential terrorists, who could use the time to conceal evidence, create diversions or possibly even find a way off a ship.

Complaints about gaping holes in security have continued since 9/11 and heightened when a Dubai company planned to run terminal operations at five ports. People who work at the water's edge and outside experts say a larger concern is with an overburdened Coast Guard charged with protecting 361 ports, with more than 60,000 ports of call a year, while trying to overhaul its culture and focus.

For the Coast Guard, "it's been culture change with a capital C," said M. R. Dinsmore, executive director of the Port of Seattle. "They're trying mightily to adapt, but they don't have the resources."

Michael Mitre, director of port security in Los Angeles for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said he had taken the Coast Guard around this sprawling port complex, the entry point for 40 percent of the nation's container cargo, to show how truckers with just a driver's license can come and go at will, how few are checked for identification, and how so much cargo escapes minimal scrutiny.

"There is systemwide noncompliance with the new security laws," Mr. Mitre said.

Four years after Congress upgraded its mission under the Homeland Security Department, the Coast Guard has strained to meet its obligations. It has had to rely on outsiders to fill crucial gaps on land, including recruiting volunteers from its auxiliary for routine shoreline surveillance and contractors to oversee federally mandated security plans by ports and their tenants.

Trying to avoid a failure of imagination in its uncharted new role, the agency has even called in screenwriters from Hollywood to help sketch terrorism situations.

"The biggest change is that the Coast Guard has gone from being an organization that ran when the bell went off to being a cop on the beat at all times," said Capt. Peter V. Neffenger, who recently gave up command of the port here for a position in Washington and who consulted with the screenwriters.

With a total active-duty force nationwide barely larger than the New York City Police Department, 39,000 people, the Coast Guard is understaffed and struggling to balance its traditional mission with its greatly enhanced domestic security role, a government audit found last year.

Still, the Coast Guard says it has made significant progress. Admirals say their budget has increased by more than 50 percent over the last five years, to $8 billion, and they have added more than 4,000 uniformed personnel. They have gone from an agency that committed less than 2 percent of its assets to port security to one where domestic protection is the top priority.

Until the terror attacks, "I didn't know a ship was coming in until I looked out the window and saw it," said Capt. Stephen V. Metruck, a veteran of West Coast operations who is based in Seattle.

The Coast Guard now requires self-reporting by big shipping operators 96 hours before entry along with electronic tracking. But it is largely an honor system, and terrorists are not going to report their contents or identity, numerous experts have noted.

In Puget Sound, as in many ports and harbors, the Coast Guard depends heavily on volunteers with binoculars to help an active-duty force of 158 people that has to guard 3,500 square miles, including the largest ferry system in the nation.

At the ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, the Coast Guard hands out leaflets urging people to report suspicious behavior.

"There's no way we could patrol this whole thing ourselves," a spokesman for the Coast Guard here, Lt. Tony Migliorini, said. "A lot of this, we're making it up as we go along. We're creating it from scratch."

A version of this article appears in print on , on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Some Ships Get Coast Guard Tip Before Searches. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe